


i think heaven has a plot to take my life

by dancingmalum



Series: 5sos gay one shots [15]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), All Time Low, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens
Genre: M/M, kind of jalex, kind of kellic, kind of malum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 00:02:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11001750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingmalum/pseuds/dancingmalum
Summary: Luke sits up and squints, lifting his hand and shielding his eyes from the burning sun. There's a jungle-looking forest not too far from him and he's sitting in scorching hot sand and wearing tight skinny jeans and a sweater. No wonder his forehead is dripping, it's humid and blazing and he's wearing winter clothes. Luke slowly stands up and stretches, yawning, then pulls his sweater and jeans off, leaving him in boxer briefs.This isn't New York.





	i think heaven has a plot to take my life

**Author's Note:**

> kind of based off of william golding's "lord of the flies" because i liked that book and it seemed like an interesting thing to write a fanfic for  
> also, kind of unrelated pierce the veil lyrics as the title :-)

Luke sits up and squints, lifting his hand and shielding his eyes from the burning sun. There's a jungle-looking forest not too far from him and he's sitting in scorching hot sand and wearing tight skinny jeans and a sweater. No wonder his forehead is dripping, it's humid and blazing and he's wearing winter clothes. Luke slowly stands up and stretches, yawning, then pulls his sweater and jeans off, leaving him in boxer briefs.

Luke grabs his clothes and starts walking towards the jungle, away from the ocean (or large body of water, whatever it is), cautiously stepping in between two trees to have a look around. There's not much noise, other than a few birds chirping and the faint sound of the water behind him. He's not quite sure where he is and who else is with him, if anybody. The last thing he can remember is the plane going down and watching the ocean get closer to him. Ah, so the water must be an ocean.

The blonde wipes sweat from his forehead with the clothes in his hand, continuing to explore the area. He hears a rustling noise not too far from him, so he panics slightly and turns back around, going towards about where he came from. He manages to make it out of the jungle, but it's not where he was before. He's on another beach of some sort, and he looks out and instead of seeing ocean like he saw before, there's a lagoon. Luke sets his clothes down on a rock by the edge of the water before dipping his toes in. It's warm, not quite as warm as the air temperature, but not cool enough to cool him down at all.

"Checking the fucking temperature," a man's voice scoffs, laughing, and Luke flinches at the sound. He looks around but doesn't see anyone, and he's scared that he's imagining a voice in his head. "Over here, genius," the voice says, and Luke looks in the general direction of the voice, but only finds the cliffs surrounding the lagoon. "Look up, dimwit," the voice says, and Luke looks straight up at the sky. "Fucking idiot, I'm at the top of the cliff." Luke looks at the top of the cliff, and sure enough, there's a guy sitting with his legs dangling off the edge. He's got obviously dyed red hair, which Luke finds interesting.

"How'd you get up there?" Luke asks, and he coughs to clear his throat. His voice is scratchy and rough.

"I climbed, how else would I get up here?" The guy asks as if it's obvious. He's got an American accent, which is slightly comforting, because Luke was headed to America when his plane crashed into the ocean. "Before you ask any questions, let me tell you all I know. The plane crashed in the ocean not too far from this island and I found your body floating around, so I grabbed you, hoped you weren't dead, and brought you to shore. I've only found 4 other survivors, not including you and I."

"Where are they?" Luke asks, and his neck is getting sore from looking up at the guy for so long.

"They're trying to find food. It's been almost 2 days since we got here and we haven't found food yet." The guy suddenly jumps from the cliff, and Luke gasps in horror as he watches him fall into the lagoon. A few seconds later, his head pops out of the water and he grins at Luke, swimming until it was shallow enough to walk. Luke notices that he's equally as clothed as himself; only boxer briefs on. "Hi, I'm Michael," he introduces himself, and Luke smiles just a little bit, but it's hard to smile when he knows that he's not in America like he should be.

"I'm Luke."

"The other people that I know of here are somewhere in the jungle, I forgot their names," Michael says. "Well, aside from Calum. I remember his name."

"Did you know him before the plane crashed?"

"Nope, he's just really fucking hot and I'm never gonna forget him."

"Oh."

"We could go find them or just wait for them to come back, they probably either forgot that I found you or they think you're still dead."

"We can go find them," Luke starts to say, but before he can say anything else, Michael cuts him off.

"I wasn't asking you, Luke. If you want to go, suit yourself. I'm staying out here, it's the perfect temperature in the lagoon and I'm lazy," Michael shrugs. Luke doesn't want to go back into the jungle alone again, so he slowly waded into the water to join Michael. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen," Luke replies, going deep enough where the water just barely went over his shoulders.

"That explains a lot," Michael says, and Luke raises an eyebrow in question. "You look really young and you're not that smart," Michael tells him, and Luke actually gasps in offence.

"I'm not stupid," Luke defends himself.

"Okay, I'll let you think whatever you want to think," Michael shrugs, an annoyingly smug grin on his face. Luke rolls his eyes and holds his breath, dunking his head underwater. He comes back up and makes his way out of the lagoon, laying down on his back on the beach. "Have you not had enough sleep for the past 2 days?" Michael snorts, and Luke only lifts a hand and flips him off in response. "Oh come on, lighten up- what's your name again?"

"Luke."

"Right. Lighten up, Luke, you're taking me too seriously. I'm just messing with you, I sleep a lot, too."

Luke tunes him out and relaxes against the sand. He's oddly calm for the current situation he's in, maybe it hasn't quite sank in yet that he's on a deserted island with very few people, it hasn't quite hit him that he might not see other human beings ever again if they're not rescued.

~

"Are you sure he's not dead? He still looks pretty dead to me, just dead and laying in a different spot of the island," Luke hears a guy's voice say.

"He's alive, but much more annoying awake than asleep," Michael's voice says. "He's hot, though."

"Michael!" Another voice scolds.

"What? Just saying."

"I think he's waking up, stop talking about him," the first voice says. Luke scrunches his face up and opens his eyes, squinting against the setting sun. He sits up and leans on his elbows, his eyes starting to focus.

"See, he's alive," Michael says, and Luke sees a guy reach his hand down to help him stand up. He takes the hand and stands up, stretching quickly. "And I told you he's hot." Michael's got a teasing smirk on his face, and Luke blushes a little bit.

"Leave the poor kid alone," someone says, and Luke smiles at him. He's got light brown, curly hair, and he's muscular. "Hi, I'm Ashton."

"I'm Calum," another boy says, the one with tan skin and scattered tattoos along one arm and his hands.

"I'm Kellin," the boy with shoulder-length black hair says, and he's got tattoo sleeves and a really pretty collarbone tattoo in cursive.

"I'm Vic," the last guy says, and from what Luke can see, he doesn't have any tattoos. He's got similar hair to Kellin's, but Kellin's is more wavy and Vic's is straight.

"I'm Luke," he introduces himself softly, playing with his hands awkwardly. He's not very good at social things, he's quiet and shy, and he doesn't really like people that much. It's much cooler outside now, the sun's almost completely down and it's getting darker and harder to see the boys.

"Does anybody know how to make a fire?" Michael asks, looking around. Luke shakes his head, but he sees Ashton nod in confirmation. Ashton's probably good at everything. He's got that kind of look to him.

"I'll go find stuff to get a fire going, anyone wanna come with?" He asks, and Luke volunteers himself. He feels like he can probably be safe with Ashton, he can probably protect him if anything happens. "Get your clothes on first, it's gonna get cold by the time we get back." Luke nods and grabs his clothes, putting them on self consciously. It felt weird to be wearing such little clothing in front of other people, especially 5 other guys.

"Don't get lost, come back as soon as you can," Kellin says, and Luke smiles a little at him. He follows Ashton to the jungle, and if it looked scary in the daylight, it looked even more terrifying in the dark. Luke nearly jumps out of his skin when he feels something touch his hand, but it's just Ashton's hand grabbing his own.

"I'm terrified of this jungle," Luke admits to Ashton not too long after.

"Why'd you want to come with me, then?" Ashton asks, but he just sounds curious, he's not making fun of Luke.

"You seem like you know what you're doing, I'm not sure about the others yet," Luke explains, carefully staying close to the probably much older boy. "How old are you?" He wonders.

"23, I'm not the oldest here," Ashton says, and wow, he's not the oldest? "Vic's 26 and Kellin's 25," Ashton tells him, and Luke nods. "I don't know about Michael and Calum. And you, how old are you?"

"Seventeen," Luke says, and then trips over a tree root in the ground. Ashton's free arm catches him from the front, preventing him from face planting into the ground. "Thanks."

"You're really only seventeen?" Ashton asks, and Luke nods. "What were you doing on a plane from Australia to the United States?"

"I got selected to play in a professional orchestra and they paid for me to go over and play violin with them, but I guess I won't make it," Luke sighs, sniffling and trying not to cry. He hasn't thought about the orchestra since before the plane went down. Luke ends up crying a few moments later, though, he's been looking forward to going to America for the orchestra for a full year, and now he can't even go.

"Don't cry, Luke, please," Ashton says gently, and he stops walking to pull Luke into a hug. "I'm so sorry you won't make it, maybe when we get rescued they'll invite you back to play with them." Luke just cries into his chest and mumbles about how he's been waiting to play with the American orchestra since the day they mailed him a letter that said that he got accepted a year ago.

"H-how do y-you even know we'll get r-rescued?" Luke asks, trying to wipe his tears. He pulls away from Ashton just enough to still be holding him, but see his face.

"We will, Lu, don't worry, okay? They must know the plane went down, they'll find us soon," Ashton says softly, and Luke feels so incredibly safe in his arms, and the little nickname made him blush and smile a little. "We'll be okay, we'll get through this together."

"P-promise you won't l-leave me if we get rescued?" Luke asks, his voice seeming small and scared.

"I'll give you my number when we get back home, then we can stay in contact and set up times to meet up," Ashton says. "I promise I won't forget you, Lu, but for now we just gotta focus on us all staying alive." Ashton then leans forward and presses a soft kiss on Luke's forehead, wiping his tears with his thumbs. "We'll all be okay, we'll get rescued soon."

Luke smiles for real and gives Ashton's hand a squeeze before bending down and picking up pieces of wood where a tree had fallen and started to rot. He keeps his hand in Ashton's the rest of the time spent in the jungle, and when they make it back to the other boys, they still don't let go. Luke feels safe with Ashton.

"I was starting to think you got eaten by something," Michael jokes when they join them in the sand, and Ashton goes to work on making a fire by smashing rocks together to make a spark over some dry long grass. When he gets a small fire started, he adds some wood and then leans back, smiling at Luke next to him.

"We should do some introductions, tell everyone why we were going to the United States," Kellin suggests, and everyone nods. "I'll go first. I'm Kellin, just in case you forgot, and I went to Australia for a vacation a few weeks ago and I was on my way back home to New York."

"I'm Calum, and I live in Sydney and I was on my way to New York to visit a friend."

"I'm Michael, I went to Sydney to visit my family. I've been living in New York with my mom since I was really little, my dad left and the rest of my mum's family still live in Australia. She and I moved to New York when I was 5, and I was gonna go home a few days early."

"I'm Ashton, I'm from Sydney and I was on my way to New York to vacation for a few weeks, it was kind of a random idea."

There's a moment of complete silence, and Luke's looking at his hands in his lap. He doesn't want to cry in front of everyone, he's not quite sure about trusting them. He knows he should trust them, they've all got to depend on trust, but Luke's got trust issues and social problems. It's hard to trust people easily. He looks over at Vic, who's been silent, and he looks like he's hesitant, but he starts talking.

"I was in Australia with my brother just for fun and we were on our way back," Vic pauses, looking like he's trying to calm down. "I haven't seen him since the plane went down, I lost my little brother," he says quietly, and he covers his face with his hands. Kellin is quick to wrap his arms around him and whispers comforting things in his ear. Luke bites his lip, it's his turn to talk now, he's the only one who hasn't gone yet.

"I-I'm Luke, I was accepted into an orchestra in New York, I've been waiting to play with them for a year now," he says, kind of rushing it just to get it over with.

"And he's only seventeen, he's gotta be really good," Ashton says, and Luke blushes and looks down with a smile on his face. Ashton wraps his arm around his waist, and Luke whispers a small 'thank you' to him.

~

The sun's been down for a while when they all finally decide to go to sleep, and it's quite chilly. It's not cold, but it's cool enough where Luke has goosebumps and is slightly trembling.

"Are you cold?" Ashton whispers to him, they're laying close together on the sand, and the other boys are kind of scattered.

"Yeah, it's a bit cool," Luke whispers back.

"Come here, we can cuddle to keep warm," Ashton says, and Luke blushes again and scoots closer, and Ashton wraps his arms around him and kisses the top of his head. "Goodnight, Lu," he murmurs.

"Goodnight Ash," Luke mumbles, curling into the older boy's side and burying his face is Ashton's sweatshirt.

~

Luke wakes up not in Ashton's arms, laying on his stomach with his face pressed into what seems to be Ashton's sweatshirt. He sits up and squints, looking around. Ashton, Calum, Kellin and Vic are all talking together, sitting on the dry sand closest to the lagoon. Michael is sprawled out on his back, still asleep, in the sand. It's hot again, so Luke takes his sweatshirt off. He leaves his jeans on, though, he's not really all that comfortable being that vulnerable even though he knows he can probably trust the boys. He really only trusts Ashton so far, though, because of their talk the night before.

Luke stands up and lays his sweatshirt down on a big rock by the edge of the lagoon before making his way towards the other boys.

"Morning," Ashton greets, and Luke greets him back. "Are you a good swimmer?"

"Yeah, I just couldn't swim when the plane went down because I think I hit my head and passed out," Luke explains, and Ashton nods.

"We were thinking that maybe you and I could swim out to where the plane crashed and just see if we can find anything worth saving to help us survive," Kellin says, and Luke nods. He used to be on the swim team last year before he quit to focus solely on violin and music. "Wanna go now or later?"

"Anytime is fine, I really don't care," Luke shrugs, he wants to be as helpful as he can.

"We should go as early as we can to just get it over with, and maybe we'll find some food. We haven't been able to kill anything on this island yet, we don't have anything to kill with," Kellin says. Luke nods. "Take your jeans off, it'll be easier to swim without them."

"Already hitting on him?" Calum asks, an amused smile on his face. He's sitting in the sand and trying to pry open an oyster with his fingers. "You gotta get to know him first, then you make the move and kiss him."

"Excuse you, I'm very picky when it comes to guys, I'm not gonna let just anybody kiss me," Luke says, and they all laugh. He likes Calum, he's got a good sense of humour and he's hot, just like Michael said. Luke wouldn't date him or anything, but he's attractive.

"But seriously, Luke, you gotta strip. Jeans are way too heavy to swim in," Kellin says, and Luke blushes as he pulls his skinny jeans off. "I know where the plane is, once we get there, we're gonna have to search blindly," Kellin tells him as they're walking down the beach. He points out into the ocean and Luke sees through the crystal clear water the outline of the plane, it's not too far off shore, but it'll be hard to access. They start wading through the water until it's deep enough to swim, and they swim a few hundred feet or so to get to the plane. "Remember, don't open your eyes underwater, the salt will burn."

Luke nods and dives under the water after Kellin does, and then he swims a good 12 or 13 feet under the water. He opens his eyes just a little, and it burns, but he swims to the plane and sees the door busted open and a bunch of openings just barely large enough that he could fit through. He pushes off the top of the plane and gasps for breath at the surface, treading water before taking another deep breath and going under. He opens his eyes again and sees Kellin blindly grabbing at the edge of a window, and Luke grabs his hand and leads him to an opening. Luke then squeezes himself through and looks around. He swims to the back of the plane quickly and opens the door, getting inside and pushing the door closed as fast as he can.

The bathroom isn't filled with much water, it's up to his waist, and he remembers being on the plane and waiting forever to go to the bathroom because one of them was jammed closed. It must've been this one, because there would be waste everywhere. The door probably became unstuck when the plane hit the surface of the water. Luke catches his breath before opening the door and closing it after him to keep as much air in there as possible. He squeezes back through an opening to get out of the plane, and he swims to the surface, gasping for breaths again.

"Fuck, Luke, I thought you died!" Kellin exclaims, and he pulls Luke into a hug. "I was so scared you were gone, you were down there for a really long time after you brought me to the rip in the plane."

"I went into the bathroom in the back and there was air," Luke explains breathlessly. "I've got an idea; we need to plug all the holes in the plane and then open the bathroom doors and let the water into the toilets so there's less in the body of the plane and we can breath."

"I was thinking we could get the other boys out here and we could have them help us push the plane closer to the island, it's not too far," Kellin says, and Luke nods. "But we could try plugging the holes first, that might work."

"I can open my eyes underwater here, too, so it's easier to find everything," Luke tells him, and Kellin seems impressed that he can, since the ocean is salty. "I'll go find stuff to plug up the holes and give some of it to you, I'll be right back. If I'm not up in about a minute or so, don't look for me."

"Luke, I can't just leave you," Kellin frowns. "If you don't come back up in a minute, then I'm going down there and finding you, I'm not leaving you."

"Fine. I'm gonna go," Luke says, and then takes a large breath and dives under. He swims as fast as he can to an entrance in the plane and he grabs someone's suitcase from an open overhead compartment. He unzips it and starts pulling out clothes, then stuffs them into holes along the side of the plane. He forgets about bringing stuff up for Kellin, and he just keeps plugging holes. Then he sees Kellin trying to find him, so he grabs a few suitcases and swims over to him, just on the inside of the plane. Kellin holds a hand out for Luke to take, and he's quickly running out of air and he feels like he's going to pass out. He's been underwater for too long now. He grabs Kellin's hand and squeezes through the gap, yanking the suitcases with him.

He's dizzy and losing energy, and Kellin's pretty much pulling him to the surface now. His head gets above air and he coughs and takes in large gulps of air.

"You keep scaring me, Luke," Kellin says, and he's crying. Luke can tell because of his red face and quivering lip, and he immediately feels horrible.

"I don't mean to scare you," he says softly, switching the suitcases to his other hand. "I was trying to get as much done as I could." He winces when Kellin pulls him into a hug, and he pulls away quickly. "Ow, my back hurts."

"Fuck fuck fuck, get out, quick," Kellin panics, eyes wide as he starts to pull on his hand and lead him closer to the island. "You're bleeding, hurry! We have to go before sharks smell the blood!" Luke panics and swims even faster, and soon they're running up the shallow water and onto the beach. Luke drops the suitcases and almost collapses, but Kellin catches him. "It's gonna hurt to get sand in that nasty cut, be careful," he warns. Luke thanks him, and Kellin brings the suitcases to the other boys.

"Holy fuck, Luke!" Vic exclaims, standing up from the sand and examining the long cut down his back. Luke watches Kellin open a suitcase and pull out a shirt, and he presses it to his back. Luke cries out in pain and squeezes his eyes shut. Even though the cut isn't that bad, it's really long and the pressure on his back hurts. "You're lucky sharks didn't get you."

"I know, we could've gotten eaten," Kellin says, and he ties two shirts together to wrap around Luke's body, and he ties it so it'll cover his wound and not fall off. Ashton kneels down by the open suitcase and pulls out things, setting clothes in one pile and other things in another pile. In the pile of not clothes, there's a few bags of family sized chips and a box of cookies, both dry on the insides. They also find a pair of glasses and a hair brush.

"Dig in," Calum says, and he grabs a bag of chips and sits next to Vic and they share that bag. Luke and Kellin share another, and Michael and Ashton share the last one.

"I'm so hungry, oh my god," Michael says with his mouth full of chips, and everyone laughs and agrees. Luke felt as though it could be normal if they weren't in such a bad situation; him and these 5 other guys eating food and laughing together. They already seem like close friends to him, and he's only been awake for almost a day.

Once he's finished eating, Luke leans forwards and grabs the hair brush, sitting back down and brushing his hair with it. Kellin takes the brush from his hand and brushes out his longer hair, then flicks water at Luke.

"Hey!" Luke gasps, standing up and running away from Kellin, who's chasing him and flinging water from his hair at him. "Stop, Kellin!" He laughs, standing behind Michael and using him as a human shield.

"Kellin, I swear to god if you get me wet," Michael warns, bending down and quickly grabbing a soaking wet shirt. He twists it up and threateningly whips it in the general direction of Kellin, who's slowly moving closer.

"Whip that one more time at me and I'll slap you with my hair," Kellin responds with a grin, and Luke runs away from Michael and to the edge of the lagoon. He watches Michael and Kellin play fight until they got tired, which was only a few minutes, considering Michael's just a lazy person and Kellin was swimming for a while.

"Luke, come over here so I can check your back," Ashton calls to him, and Luke walks over to him, hesitantly turning around. He winces as he feels Ashton's hands move the shirts away from his wound, but it's not the worst pain he's been in before. It's tolerable, which is good, but Luke's not sure how it won't get infected. They don't have any fresh water.

"We're gonna die of thirst before we get off this island," Luke says.

"Don't think like that, Lu, we're not gonna die at all before we get out of here. We'll find fresh water somehow, and we'll be okay. I won't let any of us die, I promise," Ashton responds. He moves the shirts back so they're covering the wound, then turns Luke around to face him. He gently cups Luke's face with one hand, leaning closer. "Nothing's gonna happen to us, okay, Lu?"

"P-promise?" Luke asks, his blue eyes flickering between Ashton's hazel ones.

"I promise."

~

Luke's sitting almost in Ashton's lap as the six of them gather around a fire after sunset, Ashton's arm around his waist and fingers pressing into his hip. It's comforting, Ashton holding him; he's always craved the gentle touch of a friend, and Ashton happens to fit that description perfectly. Except it's a little different now, he's never had his life in danger like this before, so he's never depended on someone so much like this before. Luke's depending on Ashton for warmth, it's already getting colder.

There's a rustling in the jungle, and Luke turns his head to look, but he can't see anything but the slightly darker outline of the trees against the dark blue sky. Ashton squeezes his hip gently, causing him to turn back around normally and look at him.

"Did you hear that, though?" Luke asks quietly, his wide eyes searching Ashton's calm ones.

"It's probably just an animal," Ashton assures, and Luke presses himself even closer into Ashton's side. He's not convinced it's an animal, what if there's a person in there watching them?

It's all fine for about ten minutes, Michael telling a lot of lame jokes and making everyone else roll their eyes and laugh, and Luke's eased up a bit. He's still not certain it was just an animal, but he's not so paranoid.

Then out of nowhere, something hits the sand next to Luke and slides past him to Vic, and they all stop talking and laughing. Vic slowly picks it up, and it's a sharp switch blade, reflecting the flames of their fire on it's shiny blade.

"This... This is new," Vic mumbles, and Kellin reaches out and takes it from his hand. He examines it.

"Is this any of yours?" Kellin asks slowly, holding it out to show the other boys. Nobody claims the knife. He looks past Luke and his eyes grow wide, and Luke doesn't even want to look. He buries his face in Ashton's shirt and grabs for Ashton's hand that's not around his waist.

"Who the fuck are you?" An unfamiliar voice asks with a not-very-nice tone of voice.

"We're, um, we're survivors of the plane crash a few days ago," Kellin replies, and Luke's trembling.

"And you're probably all starving," another voice says. The new voices are both American guys, and it's hard to tell if they're much older or not. "None of you look like you can kill food for you fucking lives."

"We're a bit hungry, yeah," Calum answers. He doesn't say anything about the insult that was so easily thrown at them.

"Sucks to you," one of the guys says. "Learn. We're not gonna just give you our food just because you want it."

"We never said we wanted your food," Kellin says, but one of the guys approaches him and smacks him across the face, making a loud sound.

"Don't fucking talk back to us," a guy with a dark brown fringe snaps, and Luke's terrified of him already. The hand he slapped Kellin with has a large rose tattoo on the back, and his leather jacket covers the rest of his wrist. The other guy steps into Luke's view and Luke doesn't like him, either. He's got short black hair with a red streak in it, and his face looks pissed off.

"Give me my switchblade," the one with the red streak of hair demands, holding his hand out to Kellin, who gives it back immediately. "Why haven't any of you learned how to kill? You all stupid as hell or what?"

"We don't have weapons. Tomorrow we're going to swim to the plane and go through some people's luggage," Calum explains calmly. The guy with the rose tattoo looks around and his eyes catch on Luke, who trembles under his gaze and finds Ashton's hand to squeeze.

"You're young, aren't you?" He asks, and his gaze softens. He kneels down next to the blonde and searches his face. "Nineteen years old, maybe?"

"S-seventeen," Luke responds softly.

"Holy fuck, you're not even legal age yet." The guy turns to the one who owns the switchblade. "I think they're safe, Jack. This one's only seventeen."

"Alex, we're still not giving them food," he replies stubbornly. The two new boys move onto talking about something else with Calum, and Luke cries silently into Ashton's chest. Ashton notices after a while and stands up with the blonde, holding him by the waist and leading them away from the other boys.

"What's wrong, babe?" Ashton asks, eyes concerned.

"I don't like them," Luke says. "I feel like they're bad people."

"Just give them some time, they might be nice and help us find food."

Luke sighs and nods, but continues to stay at Ashton's side in case anything bad happens.

~

Luke wakes up in the morning first, he sits up and looks at everyone else sleeping peacefully, Kellin and Vic noticeably closer together then they were last night. He stands up and leaves Ashton alone on the sand, then takes off his sweater and jeans. He wades into the lagoon, then finds the cliff that Michael was on when he woke up on the island. He starts to climb the side, it's pretty easy, and he's at the top in a few minutes. He scans the island, it's not very big, but there seems to be a small stream in the middle and a large hill close to it.

A while later, the other boys wake up and call to Luke that they're having a meeting and he needs to get down. Luke bites his lower lip and looks down a good twenty feet down to the lagoon, nervousness tugging at his stomach. He finally jumps down, plugging his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. When he hits the water, he opens his eyes and is pleasantly surprised to know it's less salty than the ocean. He swims underwater for a while before coming up for air and swimming the rest of the way to the beach.

"We should do flips off of that cliff," Calum says with a grin, and Ashton agrees with him. Of course Ashton is probably really good at doing cool stuff like that, he's probably good at everything.

"Anyways, guys," Alex says, "We gotta figure out this food situation. So you found some packaged food in the plane and Jack and I have the skills to hunt."

"But we're not sharing," Jack says stubbornly.

"Yes we are," Alex says. "We're not letting six people starve, you douche."

"We need help moving the plane from so far out in the ocean, we can push it to the shore if all of us help," Kellin says. "It's got stuff we could use inside suitcases and stuff. We can probably all find our own suitcases, too."

Ten minutes later, Luke's underwater with Kellin, pushing the plane, and everyone else is swimming above water and pushing. It's moving, but very slowly and Luke's head hurts from holding his breath.

~

The good weather since Luke woke up on the island ends after a few days, and he wakes up to a chilly breeze on his back, although the warmth of Ashton's body heat next to him feels nice now; he's not overly hot. Luke sits up in the sand and looks up at the cloudy sky, noticing how dark and thick the clouds are.

Luke stands up and makes his way to the lagoon, leaning down and rolling the bottom of his jeans almost to his knees, then enters the water until it's just below his jeans. The water is warmer than the air, but he's got his sweater, so he's okay. The little fish swim around his feet after he's been standing in the same spot for a while, and he leans down slowly, then plunges his hand in and grabs one. The fish flops around in his hand and squirms, and he squeezes it tighter for a few minutes until it stops moving. It's a little smaller than his palm, not big enough to feed multiple people, but if they all catch a few...

"Did you catch that with your bare hands?" Michaels voice asks, and Luke looks up and him and nods. "Bring it here, we could cook it for breakfast."

"We should wait until Calum's awake, you can't cook and I can't either," Luke responds, setting the fish on a rock and going back into the water to catch another. After a few tries, he manages to get another and he squeezes it to death. He hates doing it, it's so disgusting and he hates killing it, but it's food and they desperately need it.

Luke catches three fish in total before Calum and Ashton wake up, and they start a fire to cook them. Kellin ends up trying to catch a few as well, and Vic joins him soon after. They cook seven palm-sized fish, and Ashton gives Luke a warm hug and praise for catching fish with his bare hands.

A few hours later, Jack and Vic are fooling around in the ocean to pass time, Alex and Kellin are playing tic tac toe and a few other little games in the sand, Calum and Ashton are weaving palms, and Luke and Michael are just talking and watching everything. Luke likes talking to Michael, he's funny and has interesting things to say sometimes.

"Hey, Luke?"

"Hm?"

"If spiders were the size of cats, would they be less scary or more scary? On one hand, they wouldn't get into your house as easily, but on the other hand, once they're in there, everyone would be fucked..."

"Less scary because we'd all have the proper protection against them. We have protection against things like bears and wild animals, so why wouldn't we have protection against spiders?"

"But what if they suddenly turned into the size of cats? Then what?"

"That's not logical, spiders won't just suddenly turn into the size of cats."

"But what if they did?"

"Then we'd be fucked and die immediately. I don't know?"

Luke leans against Michael and thinks about it for a while, because it passes time and they've probably got a lot of it left on the island. As he thinks, the wind starts to pick up a bit, and he can see thick clouds starting to approach the island. He can see it raining out far in the ocean, but it's still dry on the island, so he doesn't worry about it yet.

"If spiders suddenly became the size of cats, I think there would be house repair places that would go and renovate the houses and make it giant-spider proof. The government would make sure we're safe."

"The government wouldn't care. They want money-"

"Jack and Vic are still in the ocean, shouldn't we be warning them about the storm? I don't think they've noticed," Luke suddenly cuts Michael off, staring at the boys splashing each other in the ocean. The waves are rougher and bigger then they normally are, which are already pretty big.

"They'll be fine, Vic will notice soon," Michael says, and Luke continues to frown. The wind is a lot stronger now, and the rain makes its way to the island. It starts pouring out of nowhere, and the sun disappears behind thick clouds. Luke and Michael stand up, squinting through the pouring rain and trying to see the boys in the ocean.

"I'm going in. If I'm not back, don't look for me." Luke kicks his shoes off and runs into the ocean, screaming the names of Vic and Jack, trying to find them. A wave crashes down over his head, forcing salty water down his throat and stinging his eyes, but he continues out. "Vic! Jack!"

"Luke!"

"Vic, where are you?"

"Over here! I lost Jack, I can't find him!" Luke swims as fast as he can to the sound of Vic's voice, and starts crying in relief that he's okay, but worry that Jack's not. He grabs Vic and pulls him to the beach, then runs back in the water to find Jack.

"Jack! Jack, where are you?!" He screams, but he gets no response. Suddenly, he sees a head of black hair with a little red streak go underwater, and he dives for him. He grabs his ankle underwater, then tries to see if he's awake by scratching the bottom of one foot. Nothing happens. He doesn't jerk his leg or kick at all. Luke swims up for air and gets a grip on Jack's waist, pulling him up with him. He drags him as he swims back to the shore, crying even harder all the way. Jack's limp in his arms.

"Set him down! I know CPR," Calum says, and Luke starts to sob as he lays Jack on the sand and watches Calum kneel down and start with chest compressions. After a little while, he moves to rescue breaths, and then back to compressions, and then to rescue breaths. Luke's covering his face with one hand and sobbing into it, because Jack's probably dead. He touched a dead man.

"Jack! Jack, wake the fuck up," Alex gasps, kneeling down on the other side of his body. "Wake up, I need you, Jack. Please. Wake up, wake up, wake up," he whispers. "I fucking need you, I can't live without you..."

"He's dead, nothing's working," Calum breathes, his chest heaving.

"No he's not!" Alex screams. "He's not fucking dead, he's gonna be fine!"

"Alex, I'm sorry," Calum says, standing up. "There's nothing I can do. He's already gone."

"He's not fucking dead, Calum!" Alex yells, standing up and swinging a punch at Calum, who catches his fist and grabs his wrists. "Don't touch me! Leave me alone!" Alex is crying hard now, screaming and fighting against Calum.

"Come on, Luke, we're going to find somewhere to stay for the night, we can't sleep on the beach," Ashton's suddenly wrapping his arm around Luke's waist and leading him away from the fighting about Jack. Luke doesn't stop sobbing, he only continues to cry harder as the sounds of the other boy's fighting gets drowned out by the rain pounding on the trees and the harsh ocean waves hitting the beach. Ashton's fingers tighten around his waist and pull him harder when the rain seems to come down harder and faster, taking him into the jungle.

Luke hates himself. If he would've found Jack just a little bit earlier, he would've been alive. If he could've dragged him faster to the shore, maybe Jack would be okay. But he didn't, he found Vic, who seemed to be doing okay with swimming back, but Luke went with him anyways before going back to find Jack. He should've let Vic go back to shore on his own and looked for Jack.

"There's a giant rock sticking out of the ground somewhere, it's enough shelter to cover us from the rain," Ashton says, breaking his thoughts. Luke just goes with wherever Ashton's going, he's dizzy and completely out of it. He can't even follow Ashton properly. When the older boy lets go of him, he stumbles and trips, almost falling, but Ashton catches him. He has to lead Luke with one arm around his waist again all the way to the rock wedged in the dirt.

Luke drops to the ground once they get under the rock, the ground completely dry for the most part. Ashton pulls him into a hug, whispering soft apologies. Luke can't think of why he's apologising, he's done nothing wrong. All he's ever done is to help other people, he has no reason to apologise.

"Is Jack... Dead?" Luke whispers, not looking at Ashton's face.

"He must've died in the ocean, there wasn't anything Calum could've done for him on the shore."

"If I would've found him sooner then I did and brought him on shore sooner-"

"Don't blame yourself, Lu, it wasn't your fault," Ashton cuts him off. "It wasn't anyone's fault."

"But I could've tried harder. I could've swam faster. I could've looked for him first."

"Stop it, Luke. It was his own fault, dammit! There wasn't anything you could've done that you didn't already do. You found him and brought him to shore, that's the best that could've been done. You couldn't have done anything better than you did. I'm proud of you for doing that today, okay? Don't blame yourself for anything."

"I fucking hate myself, Ashton, I always fuck everything up. I can't even help a friend, I fucked everything up," Luke starts to sob again, pushing Ashton away when he leans over to hug him and comfort him. He cries into his hands and ends up gasping for breath because he's crying so hard.

"You gotta calm down, Lu, okay? Don't think about it, just listen to my voice. You need to take a deep breath in, then breath out. Focus on me right now, and we'll be okay. Just listen to me and breathe, alright? Breathe in," Ashton says, but Luke can't hear him clearly. His mind keeps flashing back to Jack in the ocean, floating to the surface before being dragged down by the current. Luke held a dead man. "Luke!"

"He's fucking dead!" Luke's hands leave his face and try to grab at the ground, he's so dizzy and everything hurts.

"Luke! Luke, listen to me!" Ashton grabs his face, forcing him to make eye contact. Luke's wide eyes, meet Ashton's calm ones, and Luke still feels like he can't breathe. "Breath, Lu, calm down."

"I-I c-can't," Luke gasps, his hands reaching out and gripping onto Ashton's shirt.

Ashton leans in and presses their lips together, and Luke shakes as he manages to slowly kiss back, just a little bit. He pulls away to breathe, their eyes meeting again. He notices that he's not so shaken up anymore and that he can breathe, and he leans in and presses their lips together for just a second before pulling away.

"You okay?" Ashton asks softly, and Luke nods a little. Ashton lets go of his face and leans back to kneel while leaning against his feet. "I was so scared for you, oh my god," the older boy says.

"I just couldn't breathe, it was terrifying," Luke shakes his head, still trembling a bit, although it may be from the cold and rain as well. "I've had a few panic attacks before. Nobody used to be there with me."

"What happened before?"

"Once I passed out. It was in the bathroom of my school just before an AP test, I had a panic attack and it got so bad that I fainted and woke up a minute later or so," Luke says, then stays silent for a few moments before saying anything again. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Of course. Anything you want."

"Have you ever heard 1812 Overture?" Luke asks, a small smile coming onto his lips. Ashton shakes his head. "You haven't? It's Tchaikovsky! Have you at least ever heard of him?"

"Nope, never. I listen to rock and that kind of stuff. I'm not a nerd," Ashton teases, and Luke pouts, pushing his shoulder.

"Shut up. I listen to normal stuff, too. I just like classical more than most people."

"Can you sing that song to me? I wanna hear it."

"You wanna hear 1812 Overture?" Luke asks, his eyes lighting up in excitement. Ashton nods, so Luke moves to sit right next to him and starts humming the chorale in the beginning. He makes it almost to the part after the chorale when he makes eye contact with the older boy and he stops humming, his eyes fluttering shut when he leans in to kiss him. Luke's hand moves to grab Ashton's hand resting on his thigh, their lips moving gently together and not rushing anything. When they separate, they both smile and Luke whispers, "Thank you for everything."

~

It's hard to talk to Alex after what happened with Jack the previous night, Luke learns soon after he and Ashton met back up with the other boys in the morning. Every time he sees Alex, he feels guilty that he couldn't save Alex's best friend; he tries to ignore him because he feels so bad.

The weather is beautiful, it's hot but not humid, and it's sunny. It makes Luke uncomfortable that it's such a beautiful day and nobody's happy, there's obvious tension everywhere and nobody's joking around about anything. Not even Michael is fooling around. The entire day was spent gathering fruit from trees, collecting water from the stream, cooking fish, and other productive things. The day seemed to go by so much slower than normal days. Jack's death is taking a toll on everyone, but especially Alex. He never spoke a word, none that Luke could hear.

And then it happens.

One moment, Alex was sitting on a rock next to the lagoon, and the next thing Luke knows, he's running into the ocean and swimming as fast as he can. He goes underwater for long periods of time before resurfacing and coughing. Luke throws off his shirt and shorts, running in after him, adrenaline pushing him faster.

"Alex! Alex, get back here!" Luke yells when he sees him resurface. "Alex!"

"Go away! Get the fuck away from me!" Alex screams. He plunges under when a huge wave crashes against him, and Luke continues towards him, ignoring his aching muscles and burning lungs. He reaches out and feels an ankle, so he grabs on and keeps holding even though Alex is kicking. He lets go, though, and lunges toward him to get a hold of his waist, pulling him to the surface.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Get off me! I'm killing myself so I don't have to live without Jack!"

"Don't do this to me, Alex, please," Luke begs, forcing eye contact. Alex is crying. "I can't loose you, too. Please."

"I can't live without Jack, I can't! He's the only reason I haven't killed myself yet! It's time, Luke, let me go. I know what I'm doing."

"I'm not letting you go!"

"Why are you trying to save me, Luke? I'm older, I know what I'm doing! You're only 17, you don't know what it's like to loose the only person you've ever loved!"

"What about us on the island? Don't you love us? We love you! Maybe not the same as you and Jack, but we love you! I can't loose you, Alex, listen to me. I know what it's like to loose someone I love, okay? It sucks and nothing matters anymore, but it's not worth it to leave because of it. It's cliche, but it gets better. You'll never forget, but you won't regret staying. I know what it's like," Luke's crying now, too, and Alex stops fighting against him. "Come back with me. I'm gonna let you choose, but think of what I said, okay? Please."

Luke lets go of Alex's waist, their eyes meeting one more time before Luke breaks it and turns around, slowly swimming towards shore. His heart hurts, and he notices how much it hurts to breathe; Alex isn't coming back. Luke makes it to shore, sulking to the rock Alex was sitting on, and sits down facing away from the ocean with his head in his hands. He can't stand to watch Alex kill himself.

"Luke."

Luke stands up quickly, running to Alex and pulling him into a hug.

"Thank you, Luke," he whispers. "Thank you."

~

"Make a fire! Make a fucking fire!" Ashton yells, getting everyone's attention quickly. Calum, Michael, Vic, and Kellin stop talking, and Luke drops the fish in his hand. "Make a fire! There's a ship!"

"Oh my god," Luke gasps, turning and staring at the horizon, seeing the silhouette of a large ship. He runs out of the water, going into the jungle and grabbing more wood to make as much smoke as possible. When he gets back to the campfire, there's a growing fire, but it needs more.

"We need some of that palm tree that fell down in the storm. Luke, Kellin, Alex, can you guys drag it here? It's not that far," Ashton says, pointing to the tree. The three boys run to it, dragging it back and putting the leaves into the fire and watching it light up. It only takes a few minutes for the fire to spread and start going down the trunk of the palm, so Calum starts tossing dry leaves and sticks into it, making it crackle and light up more.

"Fire! We got a fire!" Vic yells, laughing and grabbing onto Kellin, pulling him close. Everyone keeps adding to it and making more smoke, and Luke high fives Calum excitedly.

"The ship! Look!" Michael exclaims, and they can see it turning towards them. They scream and jump and wave their arms, making a huge scene and attracting as much attention as they possibly can.

"Ashton, we're getting saved," Luke grins, pulling him close and making eye contact, their faces an inch apart and smiles on their lips. "I can't believe it, we're getting saved."

"I know, we can go back to Sydney. You live close to there, right? We can still keep in touch."

"Yeah," Luke says, and his smile falls a little bit. "You promise to keep talking to me? You're my closest friend, you mean everything to me," he whispers, and Ashton nods, leaning in and kissing him softly for a few seconds.

"Of course I'll keep talking to you. I care so much about you, okay, Luke? I love you."

"You love me?" Luke asks, eyes widening and mouth staying slightly open in shock.

"I love you so much, Lu. I want to be in a relationship with you if it's okay with you," the older boy says quietly, and Luke can see that he's nervous that he doesn't feel the same.

"I would love that, I love you too," he smiles, and Ashton kisses him again. When they pull apart, the ship is closer to them and Luke notices Michael and Calum hugging and whispering things to each other. The fire is forgotten as soon as the ship gets close enough for someone to launch a smaller boat from it to them, and the guy in the boat pulls up to shore and looks them over carefully.

"Holy shit, you're some of the missing people from that flight!" He exclaims, and Luke gets excited to hear that he's Australian. "How many of you are here?"

"There was eight, but one passed away recently," Ashton says. "We couldn't find any other survivors, and we know where the wrecked plane is."

"Come with me, we'll take you all back to Sydney and anyone from anywhere else can probably get free transportation to wherever you need to be."

"How far away are we?" Calum asks, following Ashton and Luke to the boat, and Kellin, Vic, and Alex follow them as well.

"We're about four days by ship from Sydney," the guy says, starting the boat again and driving to the giant ship.

Luke can't believe they're getting rescued. His smile feels like it might tear his face in half.


End file.
